placebo effect. see those people? the ones who are more into the idea of something rather than the actual something? the classic "more in love with being in love" than actually being in love. what causes this? it's supply and demand. economics. you demand this certain thing and you supply it even if it's not there. psychologically this is clinically termed "desperation" or "settling" or "faking yourself out. philosophically there are no words for this phenomenon. mathematically this won't happen either.



in the real world though, this happens all the time. people have certain ideas of where they should be, who they should be, what they should be. and they have certain ideas of how this should be achieved. so they want to actually have these things, without the patience or the opportunity to actually wait for the real thing. or the ability to recognize or be exposed to the real thing. and so, they create it for themselves. like if you want to be happy but don't have anything to be happy about. you start to say "the flowers are nice, when flowers are nice, i am happy." thus, you create artificial happiness. which, over time, transforms into real happiness. there is something to be said for positive thinking i suppose. but i won't be the one to say it.



i have these too of course. foremost of which is traditionally called "cigarettes." it's not the cigarette i'm affected by. but the thought that having a cigarette will cause me to "calm" or to give me a "peace of mind" or "clarity of vision." perhaps the same with coffee too (although i only drink coffee for the taste). although there are some active ingredients in these drugs, i think really what i'm attracted to is the mindstate i reach after indulging in these vices. so really i could substitute "licorice" or "orange juice" and achieve the same results over time. yet somehow sitting on the grass on a weekend sipping on orange juice and chewing licorice just isn't quite the same as smoking sun and coffee. i never said substitutes were equal. actually, that's more my point, the substitutes are most often not equal to the real thing. only in middle or high school are substitutes (teachers) better than the real thing. heads up, we're not in middle school anymore.



so pretty much what i'm saying is that people sometimes, often(?), introduce something into their lives that will carry them through to a goal or expectation they had in mind. whether or not this thing fits is almost secondary. they want to reach the goal first, and will snatch at the closest thing. or they will equate nothing with something (or is it something with nothing?) and thus feel satisfied. like using a kitchen cleaner. 409 may not do any more cleaning than regular old water but since they market the product as sanitizing and gave it a cool scent, i think it's actually cleaning. but really, the germs are still there and laughing at the remarkable ploy they've concocted. so really, happiness is really just about marketing. as is most everything in this modern world.



disregard me, i am just a bitter, cynical small man. is life better as an optimist? if it is, it must be a hell of a lot more boring. although it's been said to me that the fact that i would want to categorize myself as cynical would mean that i'm not cynical at all. there is a whole metaphysical explanation for that logic that i really can't go into here. mainly because i don't quite understand it. and if i did, i'm not sure i would want to understand it either. blindness also leads to happiness, just in case the afore discussed plan A falls through.